Good Riddance to the Pro Bowl

I was reading some sports news yesterday and came across the news that the NFL was getting rid of the pro bowl.

I was inexplicably excited upon reading the headline. I have never liked the pro bowl. I am not a fan of all star games in general. They are glorified scrimmages. No one really wants to be there, they have to because they've been voted in. Sure, they may get a nice bonus and a trip to a nice location, but it feels like a waste of time. I watch the NBA all star game every year and I am usually disappointed. I do like the new Elam ending they changed to, and it makes the final quarter exciting. The players actually look like they are trying. They are going hard. But for three plus quarters prior to that, it is not great. I have not watched the MLB all star game in years. I used to like it because every single team has to send a player. But the game is boring, like most baseball games. I do not watch hockey, so I have no idea what the all star game is like. And then we have the pro bowl. The pro bowl might be the worst of them all.

My son has gotten into football the last year plus and was adamant about watching the pro bowl this year. I tried to talk him out of it, laying forth everything I just told all of you. But he was determined. So we watched, and he convinced me to watch with him. And we were both so very disappointed. He kept asking me why they weren't tackling people, why everyone was falling down or going out of bounds, why they were not going after punts and field goal blocks. He was just totally confused. I tried to tell him that none of these guys wanted to get hurt. That they were saving themselves for next season. He also wanted to know why no one from the Rams or Bengals were playing. I had to explain that they were playing in the Super Bowl in the following week, so the pro bowl was not even a thought for them. That only further angered him. It sucked.

Now the NFL has decided to strip the whole game. They are going to do some skills competition and a flag football game. This is the perfect idea. Flag football is fun. It is fast paced, hard to grab flags and very high scoring. I love it. My son played flag football for two years before starting tackle this year and it was awesome. I am also a big time fan of skills competitions. I adore the skills stuff during the NBA all star weekend. It is the best. It has replaced the dunk contest as the most exciting part of the whole weekend. I hope that it will be the same thing for the NFL pro bowl weekend. I am curious to see how many balls a wideout can catch in a minute. I want to see these exceptional athletes do obstacle courses. I want to know how far these NFL QBs can throw the ball. I would love to see defensive players tackle a dummy and have a way to determine how hard they are tackling it. I want to see kickers kick 60 yard field goals. I crave skills competitions. They are way more fun than watching professional athletes go 25 percent and do live interviews on the field during a pointless all star game.

I would love it if every professional sports leagues did away with all star games and just made it a weekend of skills competitions. That would be best. I have a lot of faith in the NFL doing this. Hopefully this starts a trend. Time will tell.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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